Orimulsion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orimulsion® is a registered trademark name for a bitumen-based fuel that was developed for industrial use by Intevep, the Research and Development Affiliate of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), following earlier collaboration on oil emulsions with British Petroleum.
The bitumen occurs naturally and is obtained from the world's largest deposit in the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela. Reserves are estimated at more than 1.2 trillion barrels (190,000,000 m³) of bitumen, an amount greater than 50% of the world's estimated oil reserves.
Raw bitumen has an extremely high viscosity, between 8 to 10 API degrees, at ambient temperatures and is unsuitable for direct use in conventional power stations. Orimulsion is made by mixing the bitumen with about 30% fresh water and a small amount of surfactant. The result behaves similarly to fuel oil. An alcohol-based surfactant recently replaced the original phenol-based version; improving the transport properties of the fuel and eliminating the health concerns associated with the phenol group of surfactants.
As a fuel for electricity generation, Orimulsion has a number of attractive characteristics:
- the known reserves of bitumen are very large;
- it is currently priced to be competitive with internationally traded coal;
- it is relatively easy and safe to produce, transport, handle and store;
- it is easy to ignite and has good combustion characteristics;
- it can be used in power stations designed to run on coal or heavy fuel oil, with suitable modification.
Orimulsion is currently used as a commercial boiler fuel in power plants worldwide (e.g., Canada, Japan, Lithuania, and China). Use of fuel used to be much wider and demand was at the sky-rocketing increase stage. However, when a major strike hit PDVSA, most of the engineers were fired as punishment. Orimulsion had been the pride of the PDVSA engineers, so Orimulsion fell out of favor with the key political leaders. As a result, the government is trying to "Wind Down" the Orimulsion program. The one exception is the sales of Orimulsion to China. The government has close ties to China, as it has with Cuba. The result is that China is favored with Orimulsion, while the rest of the world has either had their supplies terminated, or are still experiencing the "Wind Down" phase. Another reason is that with rising crude oil prices, it has been found that mixing or diluting Orinoco bitumen (extra-heavy oil) with a lighter crude oil can make this blend more profitable as a crude oil on the world market than by selling it as Orimulsion. An example of this is the popular Merey blend (Orinoco bitumen and Mesa crude oil).
Air pollutant control technology that is commonly available can limit emissions from Orimulsion to levels considered "Best Available Control Technology," as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
